Ringgit slightly lower versus greenback at close

KUALA LUMPUR: The ringgit slipped against the US dollar at close despite the greenback’s retracement against major currencies, said an analyst.

At 6 pm, the ringgit eased to 4.7545/7575 against the US dollar from Tuesday’s close of 4.7515/7535.

SPI Asset Management managing director Stephen Innes said that while the US Dollar Index (DXY) has temporarily eased back from the significant technical level of 105, benefitting the European and high-yielding currencies, low-yielding Asian foreign exchange, such as the ringgit, continues to face challenges amid higher US yields.

“Following stronger-than-expected US jobs data, the 10-year US yields surged to 4.40 per cent overnight. There might be a slight reduction in risk appetite ahead of Friday’s non-farm payrolls (NFP) report, leading to some consolidation around the 4.75 level for the ringgit,” he told BK.

However, Innes noted if there is a significant overshoot in one of the NFP metrics, such as Average Hourly Earnings or the headline figure itself, it could exacerbate the ongoing US bond market sell-off.

“This could potentially lead to a challenging start for the ringgit at the beginning of next week as it would likely signal that the market does not expect the Federal Reserve to cut rates in June,” he added.

At the close, the ringgit was also traded lower against a basket of major currencies.

It depreciated against the euro to 5.1192/1224 from 5.1036/1057 at Tuesday’s close, weakened vis-a-vis the British pound to 5.9769/9807 from 5.9717/9742, and was easier versus the Japanese yen at 3.1329/1351 from 3.1326/1339 previously.

The ringgit was traded mostly higher against Asean currencies except for the Singapore dollar.

The local note was higher versus the Thai baht to 12.9519/12.9653 from 12.9659/12.9771 on Tuesday and improved vis-a-vis the Indonesian rupiah to 298.6/298.9 compared to 298.9/299.1 previously.

It was also better versus the Philippine peso at 8.42/8.43 from 8.43/8.44 at yesterday’s close but slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.5159/5183 from 3.5134/5151 previously. – BK